Leiden University Student Repository

Sidelnikova, Svetlana E. (2022)

The Haunting Trauma of the Soviet Past in Lithuania

Bachelor thesis | Kunstgeschiedenis (BA)

Recent past and historical events including the times of the USSR and its doings are a sensitive topic. The creation of Grutas Park containing the monuments of Soviet communist party leaders in Lithuania in early 2000s brought attention to the treatment of the traumatizing past and the construction of memories. The thesis concentrates on the analysis of the statues and the photographs Stalin’s World made by Martin Parr. The documentary photographer used the monuments as valuable elements of his version of the history account. By looking at three types of history (official, generational, and surreal) and combining them with two case studies (the park with its statues and photographs) it becomes possible to see how collective and individual memory, nostalgia, and processes of remembering work together offering a schema to process and reflect on the traumatizing Soviet past not only for Lithuanians but for anyone with the troubled historical past.

Soviet Past, Memory, Grutas Park, Martin Parr, History

Author

Sidelnikova, Svetlana E.

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Arts, Media & Society

Supervisors

Lauritano, S.M.

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en